


Tattoos That Don't Last

by CallieC



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, First Kiss, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Multi, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:12:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5798386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallieC/pseuds/CallieC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I read Work of Art by Daughter_of_Scotland and was really inspired to continue where it left off.<br/>Len really wants to see the tattoo he'd given Barry eight years ago, but when Barry got his powers he lost the tattoo and ink will no longer stay in his skin. It picks up during the forest scene of Rogue Time. <br/>The point of view switches between Barry and Len.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tattoos That Don't Last

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Work of art](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4452758) by [Daughter_of_Scotland](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daughter_of_Scotland/pseuds/Daughter_of_Scotland). 



He wanted to see his art again.

“You what?”

Fuck. Had he said it aloud? Too late to back out now, even though he had planned the heist tonight with a different conversation in mind.

“I want to see my art again, kid. Since Cisco told me the Flash was Barry Allen, I’ve only wanted to see the tattoo on your back. The lightning and storm clouds. My best work.”

“You…you mean you’re…I mean you—you’re Wynters? The tattoo artist?” Barry was cute when he fumbled for words. It had dawned on Len that Barry was older now. Of course, Len had aged too. There was still nearly twenty years between the two of them, but it seemed less of an issue than when Barry had been eighteen and the difference between their ages was just a year less than Barry’s own age.

Len smirked, “That’s right Scarlet. I can’t believe you’d forget me.”

“I would remind you that you were behind me the whole night, didn’t spend much time looking at your face.” He didn’t seem to notice the other implications of Len being behind Barry for a whole night.

“I’m almost hurt, Scarlet. I thought that night meant something to you. But I still want to see it again.” Len paused as Barry flushed, probably realizing how what he had said sounded.

When Barry didn’t respond Len asked, “Can I see it again?” Len never asked for things. He always took, but when it came to this kid he had to ask. He didn’t know why, just felt it.

“I…I can’t.” He sounded so sad. He was pacing, having taken off the hood, because Len knew him, that was clear. His hand carded through his hair.

“Come on kid. We can be heroes and villains another time. I have to see that piece again. I need to.” Len stepped towards Barry as he said this, hands coming up and taking the kid’s own, stepping into his path, stopping the pacing. He looked into Barry’s eyes and said one word that he reserved for his sister. “Please.”

“Cold, I can’t. I can’t show you.” The kid looked so distraught.

“Come on, I even said please.” He smirked. He was going to continue when the kid looked at him, in the eye, anguish gone.

“It’s gone. The tattoo, it’s—”

“You had it removed?” Len was shocked, Barry had seemed so in love with the tattoo, when Len marked him with it. His best work. And the kid had had it removed?

“No, well I guess, yes.” He paused as he saw Len’s face. “It, it wasn’t on purpose! I didn’t want to remove it. It just sort of…happened. When I got my powers. Super speed meant super healing and super healing meant—”

“Meant my best work is no longer on the most gorgeous canvas I’ve ever worked on,” Len said, voice tinged with sadness. He stepped back.

“I’m sorry,” Barry’s voice was small. The look on his face even smaller. “I’ve tried to get new tattoos and none will stick, and—”

“Prove it,” Len said, his Cold voice back. He couldn’t believe it, not just from hearing it. Seeing is believing after all.

* * *

 

Barry stood alone in the forest, even though Leonard was right there, he felt alone. He’d felt alone since he’d realized the tattoo had gone with all his scars. Everything that had made Barry feel like he had control over his own life after his mother’s murder, his father’s imprisonment, was gone. The scars hidden on his thighs, wrists, hips, were all gone. The tattoo he’d paid no small sum of money for, gone.

He had no control in his life. Not to save his mother, not to save his father, not in living with the Wests, and not in loving Iris. And what little control he had, choosing to be a forensic scientist, searching for the impossible, and marking his body as his own, was gone.

He had no control in his life. Not anymore. Being someone with superpowers was bigger than himself, and while everyone around him said it was his choice to be a hero, it didn’t feel like it. He had a duty. With great power comes great responsibility, right?

Then, when the Reverse Flash showed up? Barry felt like he’d been playing into the man’s hands since his mother’s murder.

And now Captain Cold, the man in front of Barry. Barry had been playing to Cold since he’d thwarted the man’s plan to take the Kahndaq Dynasty diamond.

Barry felt like a toy that could be played with whenever a villain wanted. 

Except, Leonard Snart was also Leonard Wynters, the man who had given Barry his first taste of control that wasn’t self-destructive. It was a pain that had created beauty. The most beautiful tattoo Barry had ever seen was on his skin, once. And even if he was a little scared to admit, it was Wynters who had taken Barry’s mind off Iris, if only for the night they’d spent together. He’d realized pain could create beauty and not just scars and that liking someone could be the same. It was Leonard Snart who had shown him that.

He didn’t know how to express how much it had meant to him, only knowing his “thank you, I feel better now” hadn’t been enough to show it.

“Prove it,” came the command. It was Cold’s voice again, prompting him after he hadn’t responded. Before, when Cold had approached him he had felt Wynters, had forgotten that the man in front of him was Leonard Snart, forgotten the man had a rap sheet filled with things far worse than maiming and injuring and stealing.

Now he remembered. He stepped back from Cold, even as Cold pressed his space into Barry’s. They were backing up, Barry too stunned to use his powers. And then he felt a tree at his back. And Leonard’s hands at his chest. And he heard the buttons snap as Leonard pulled back the flap of reinforced tri-polymer that protected the suit’s zipper. And then he heard the zipper slide down. And he felt Cold’s hands pull down the suit, starting at his shoulders, pulling it down his arms, exposing his skin.

Barry let out a breath he didn’t remember taking in.

And Cold spun him around, back bare, the suit dangling at his waist. He heard Cold suck in a breath.

And laugh.

Barry pulled the suit back on at super speed, covering his chest and back and arms and he even pulled the cowl back up. He didn’t admit to himself that it was to cover the blush quickly spreading from his face to his chest.

So he spun at Cold, enraged.

But he couldn’t do anything, not with the man laughing so genuinely. There was no hint of the Cold persona, just Leonard Wynters, the man Barry remembered from the tattoo shop.  He looked up at Barry elated.

“You mean to tell me that you are an unending canvas? That you can get a new tattoo weekly—no, daily, and never run out of skin to put it on?”

This was…not what Barry was expecting.

“You are every bad tattoo artist’s dream, Barry. A canvas that isn’t permanently marked, no bad tattoos stuck on your skin for your entire life, even if an artist messes up on your skin it can disappear. Go away. Even a careful artist can do so much with your skin. An unending supply of material. No need to carefully plan what goes where on every inch of skin. A new tattoo daily that can be savored and appreciated for only so long before it’s gone. It would be so sad to see the tattoo disappear, but so rejuvenating for the skin to be reborn. To know that you have the freedom to choose when and where and what and how many. Barry,” Leonard said his name like a prayer, “you’re a wonder.”

Barry was stunned. Not only This…this was the Leonard Barry had met eight years ago, who was so excited to behold what Leonard had called his best work yet.

* * *

 

Len stepped close to Barry, reverence in his eyes. He stopped when Barry’s back hit the tree again.

Len lifted his hands to Barry’s chest, pressing into him, his right hand sliding up to Barry’s neck. This kid was something else. Something Len never knew he wanted.

Oh, he knew he’d wanted Barry alright, ever since the kid had walked into his shop eight years ago. But he hadn’t wanted what he wanted now. Then, he had wanted the kid for one night. Hoped he could have that. But the kid was too young, just barely eighteen. It couldn’t happen then, and Len knew that there was a far cry from it happening now.

But he’d been driven mad by this kid, the Scarlet Speedster, his Scarlet Speedster, ever since their first fight at the van. He hadn’t been this tripped up by someone since, well, not since the Scarlet Speedster himself. Only, at that time, he was just Barry.

And why had fate been so kind to him? To give him this man twice.

This time, so close to Barry, he noticed the flush in his cheeks, saw it disappear beneath the cowl, and tilted his head as he wondered how far down it really went.

Then it was Barry who made the next move.

He was fast, not supersonic, only moving at human speeds, but Len was so shocked by it that he didn’t realize Barry was kissing him until the kid pulled back. There was disappointment and fear in his eyes. The kid wore his heart on his face.

“I’m sorry, oh god, I’m so sorry, you probably didn’t want that right? Oh shit, fuck, I’m sorry Leonard.”

“It’s Len.” And Len pressed his lips to the ‘O’ already forming on Barry’s lips.

* * *

 

Barry melted into the kiss, letting Len take control. He had wanted this for so long. Eight years he’d wanted Leonard Wynters. For months he’d wanted Leonard Snart.

And now he had Len. Len felt so nice, so right. Much better than Leonard.

Len licked into Barry’s mouth and it felt so good. So nice. So right. Barry moaned into the kiss, just as Len pulled back to breathe.

And immediately moved his mouth back into Barry, sucking in his lower lip, biting it. Barry groaned. And Len’s hands pulled off the cowl Barry had been so quick to pull back up. His lips trailed across Barry’s jaw after the cowl had been moved. He moved his wandering lips down Barry’s neck and sucked.

“Len,” Barry moaned the name and then gasped. His eyes flew open and he realized, Leonard Snart was his enemy. A villain. A supervillain. A murderer. He started vibrating, his hands on Len.

The man moaned, Barry’s names on his lips, breath ghosting across the skin at Barry’s neck.

And it was too much for Barry. He pushed Len back with supersonic speed and the man flew. He landed hard on the ground, and the cold gun skittered away from him. Len sat up, hand to his head.

Barry flashed to Len’s side, because, damn it, this wasn’t just Leonard Snart, the criminal. This was Leonard Wynters, the man who had given Barry something he could never repay him for.

“Fuck, I’m sorry, are you okay? Shit, Len, are you okay?” Barry kneeled and rushed his hands to Len, turning the man’s face to his.

“Thought you were enjoying that, kid. Why the sudden cold shoulder?” Len smirked, un-phased by Barry’s outburst.

“It’s that, well you and I, The Flash and Captain Cold…” he trailed off.

“We’re enemies. Thought you might be having an identity crisis. Central City’s gold n’ scarlet boy, into other boys? Couldn’t be good for the image.” Captain Cold was back at full capacity, Len Wynters only a shadow.

“That’s not the problem. However, Central’s scarlet boy into bad boys? That is definitely a problem,” Barry said, quickly adapting to Cold’s word choice. “I’m sorry for throwing you. It was…”

“A gut reaction being kissed by a man you don’t want.”

“No, god no. I want you Len. More than you might know, ever since that day in the tattoo parlor a--”

“But that day I was Leonard Wynters, not Leonard Snart. You want Leonard Wyn—”

“No,” said Barry, firm. “I want Len Snart. The man who gave me a tattoo worth more than he knows, the man who challenges me with his heists, the man who was so in awe of me tonight, the man who has shaped created who the Flash is, the man who took so much care when giving a kid his first tattoo, and the man who took control of that kiss like he knew what I wanted. The man I don’t want is the murderer, the kidnapper, the torturer. And I know you’re good enough in your criminal activities that you don’t have to do any of those things.”

Len smirked, tilted his head. “That’s true.”

“And maybe if you promise to stop hurting and killing and maiming and kidnapping and—”

“I get it, kid.”

“Maybe we can explore whatever this is.”

* * *

 

The way he said that, Barry didn’t want just a causal enemies with benefits relationship, Len could see that much. Kid probably wasn’t the type for a relationship based purely in its physicality. And this kid made Len want that. Want more than just a quick fuck or two.

Len tipped his head again, contemplating what this could mean for him. What he could have if he just gave what the kid asked for a chance.

“Okay, kid, I promise.”

Barry pulled back, shock evident in his face. But it quickly changed into a blinding smile.

“One more thing,” Barry said, “think you could stop calling me kid?”

“Cute. But that’s not gonna happen.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic that I've really been excited to write about, and share with people. I'm still working on getting characters in character and fixing out plot kinks. I have a lot planned for this AU, but it's taking me a while to figure out how the timeline of the show will stay intact.  
> Any critiques, criticisms, praise, would be incredibly appreciated. I won't be offended if you guys don't like it.


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